Chronicle

Josh Trank’s new film asks the question what would a teenager do if he had superpowers? Short answer: trouble.

Okay, maybe adults have it tougher. But teens, apart from having things expected from them, are totally confused. They want to think that they’re adults, but their parents treat them like kids. They’re constantly being told, “You’re my child, and you’re going to do what I say. Now act like an adult.”

“Wait, so I’m still a kid? I had a bar mitzvah. You told me straight out, ‘Today you are a man.’ I was there!”

“I’m still a kid? I had a bar mitzvah. You said, ‘Today you are a man.’ I was there!”

No, you’re a teen. And there are differences:

I. WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR TALENTS

What would you do if you had superpowers? Chronicle, the recent movie whose title does absolutely nothing to describe what the movie is about (as opposed to Snakes on a Plane), attempts to answer that question.

The answer? Pretty much what you’ve been doing until now.

You have talents now. Or you have money. A couple of people out there have both. Do you run around after dark and try to use it to help the less fortunate? Some do. Many want to, but it somehow never happens, through no fault of their own. Chances are, if we got powers, the exact same percentage of us would become superheroes.

Chronicle is the story of three teenagers -- Matt, Steve and Andrew -- who attend a party in an abandoned barn, which is where movie teenagers hold their parties when no one’s parents are out of town, and they find a cave in the wilderness. They jump right in, and lo as well as behold, there’s a meteor waiting to give them telekinesis -- the power to manipulate objects with their minds.

This is the real reason that kids want to be astronauts when they grow up. We keep telling them that meteors give people superpowers.

But these kids have obviously never seen a superhero movie before. If they had, they would know that if you get superpowers, you only have two career options: hero and villain. There are no super-powered accountants. The closest you can get is a mild-mannered accountant who disappears when there’s trouble and comes back with lame excuses, like, “It’s tax season.”

But the kids just continue being kids, albeit with powers. They use their powers to play practical jokes, eat large amounts of chips at once, and play football in the sky.

The truth is that most adults wouldn’t become superheroes either. Chances are, we would find a way to monetize it, even just to make things easier at work, like when we want to get something from the printer. It would also come in handy in traffic situations. Not to mention moving the car on alternate-side day, making the scale say lower numbers, and bringing out the garbage without getting week-old soup all over our pants. But at least we’d be…

II. THINKING ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS

But these are teenagers. They’re not going to think about the future. There’s no point in doing that if you’re going to live forever. You can always think about the future later. Like when you’re a hundred. If teenagers thought about the future, they wouldn’t jump into a glowing cave at the drop of a hat, or play football in the path of an airplane, or, as Andrew later does, shove an annoying driver off the road in his SUV, directly into a river. And the reasons they can do that is:

III. TEENS ARE ADULTS WITHOUT LIFE EXPERIENCE

They’re bigger than they used to be, they can do things they couldn’t do as kids, but they’re basically the equivalent of handing someone the keys to a big truck and telling him to learn on the job. He’s going to keep tearing up the clutch and sideswiping car mirrors.

In fact, the best thing, when you’re learning to drive, is to have a licensed driver in the passenger seat, mumbling prayers and stepping on an invisible brake. They need:

IV. ROLE MODELS

All the successful teenage heroes have some kind of positive parental influence: Robin has Batman, Spider-Man has Uncle Ben, the X-Men have X. Whether or not Matt and Steve have anyone is unclear, but Andrew definitely doesn’t have ANY positive role models. His mother is dying, and his father is an abusive alcoholic. So when he gets annoyed at a crazy driver, he tries to blow out the SUV, but instead sends it careening off the road and almost gets the guy killed. That’s some life experience right there.

And that forces Matt and Steve to come up with:

V. RULES

Don’t use your powers in public, don’t use them against living things, don’t use them when you’re mad. When you’re an adult, you realize that there are more important things in life than getting a pair of scissors from point A to point B in a hurry. You need rules.

But Andrew doesn’t react well to the rules. Teens tend not to. A big part of being a teenager is testing, bending and breaking the rules. Especially the one about acting on emotions and cravings. I teach in a high school, and sometimes the kids eat in class.

“You’re not supposed to be eating,” I tell them. “There are rules.”

“Yes,” they agree. “But I’m hungry.”

Well, by all means. The rule is actually, “No eating in class UNLESS YOU’RE HUNGRY.” That sounds like a believable clause they would put in, considering teenagers are always hungry.

Sure, Andrew rationalizes it in his head. “I’m more powerful than everyone else,” he says. “Does a lion feel remorse over killing a gazelle?” But what makes you superior is not what you can do, it’s the rules you set for yourself. Your bible, if you will. And it’s Andrew’s inability to follow the rules that causes him to act on his emotions, rob a gas station, deflect a bullet without considering the consequences, and end up in the hospital.

VI. SHADES OF GREY

Eventually, Andrew does become a villain. He is not all evil, and the movie does a good job of explaining why he would do what he does. But once he goes there, he starts lashing out at everyone – even people he has nothing against personally. He’s not really a supervillain, he’s a cranky teenager.

But he doesn’t get there all at once. It’s a series of steps -- letting his emotions control him, acting without considering the consequences, breaking the rules, hurting people by accident, his mother’s condition, his botched robbery, his injuries, his father’s abuse, his mother’s death. It’s not like flicking a switch from good to evil. There are a million shades of grey in between.

The truth is that most of the world is grey. But kids see the world in terms of black and white. There’s good guys and bad guys. There are no charitable businessmen who used underhanded tactics to get there, and there are no pickpockets who are just trying to feed their families. There are no shades of grey. When you tell your kids, “You can have this back when you learn to stop hitting people with it,” they hear, “You can’t have this back.” My son doesn’t understand why he can’t have a playdate after his bedtime on a school night with a kid who’s in his class all the livelong day. If playdates are okay, why not now? If I want something, why not buy it? If I can’t talk to strangers, why can you?

Growing up is not just about getting powers and abilities you didn’t have as a kid. That’s step one. Step two is figuring out what to do with those powers. A kid figures, “When I grow up, I’m going to eat candy ALL THE TIME.” An adult realizes that maybe there are reasons not to. There are pros and cons. Growing up is not a light switch that you flick, it’s a series of little steps. A bar mitzvah is just the first step

Becoming an adult means realizing that most of the world is shades of grey. And the first shade of grey is being a teenager.

Visitor Comments: 3

Excellent article. Teens lack more than life experience. The brain isn't fully developed until age 25.

(2)
Ayelet,
February 15, 2012 2:37 PM

good summary

thanks for the food for thought

(1)
ruth housman,
February 15, 2012 1:58 PM

Super People

Super people are people who act in ways that put the kind back into mankind. For this, the only power you need, is right inside you, meaning take what you have, and give, as best you can, and remember how it is to feel down, because we all do, and we all hit the rocks, sooner or later. Life is like that. To be "super" doesn't require a lightning bolt to hit us, and we can all be Harry Potter's MOM or DAD. Just take the light and spread it. Act as if everyone has a candle, and you are there to help them keep it lit, or to re kindle it again, when the lights go out, as they do, for us all, sometime or other.

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I live in rural Montana where the Cholov Yisrael milk is difficult to obtain and very expensive. So I drink regular milk. What is your view on this?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Jewish law requires that there be rabbinic supervision during the milking process to ensure that the milk comes from a kosher animal. In the United States, many people rely on the Department of Agriculture's regulations and controls as sufficiently stringent to fulfill the rabbinic requirement for supervision.

Most of the major Kashrut organizations in the United States rely on this as well. You will therefore find many kosher products in America certified with a 'D' next to the kosher symbol. Such products – unless otherwise specified on the label – are not Cholov Yisrael and are assumed kosher based on the DOA's guarantee.

There are many, however, do not rely on this, and will eat only dairy products that are designated as Cholov Yisrael (literally, "Jewish milk"). This is particularly true in large Jewish communities, where Cholov Yisrael is widely available.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote that under limited conditions, such as an institution which consumes a lot of milk and Cholov Yisrael is generally unavailable or especially expensive, American milk is acceptable, as the government supervision is adequate to prevent non-kosher ingredients from being added.

It should be added that the above only applies to milk itself, which is marketed as pure cow's milk. All other dairy products, such as cheeses and butter, may contain non-kosher ingredients and always require kosher certification. In addition, Rabbi Feinstein's ruling applies only in the United States, where government regulations are considered reliable. In other parts of the world, including Europe, Cholov Yisrael is a requirement.

There are additional esoteric reasons for being stringent regarding Cholov Yisrael, and because of this it is generally advisable to consume only Cholov Yisroel dairy foods.

In 1889, 800 Jews arrived in Buenos Aires, marking the birth of the modern Jewish community in Argentina. These immigrants were fleeing poverty and pogroms in Russia, and moved to Argentina because of its open door policy of immigration. By 1920, more than 150,000 Jews were living in Argentina. Juan Peron's rise to power in 1946 was an ominous sign, as he was a Nazi sympathizer with fascist leanings. Peron halted Jewish immigration to Argentina, introduced mandatory Catholic religious instruction in public schools, and allowed Argentina to become a haven for fleeing Nazis. (In 1960, Israeli agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from a Buenos Aires suburb.) Today, Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America with 250,000, though terror attacks have prompted many young people to emigrate. In 1992, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 32 people. In 1994, the Jewish community headquarters in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 85 people. The perpetrators have never been apprehended.

Be aware of what situations and behaviors give you pleasure. When you feel excessively sad and cannot change your attitude, make a conscious effort to take some action that might alleviate your sadness.

If you anticipate feeling sad, prepare a list of things that might make you feel better. It could be talking to a specific enthusiastic individual, running, taking a walk in a quiet area, looking at pictures of family, listening to music, or reading inspiring words.

While our attitude is a major factor in sadness, lack of positive external situations and events play an important role in how we feel.

[If a criminal has been executed by hanging] his body may not remain suspended overnight ... because it is an insult to God (Deuteronomy 21:23).

Rashi explains that since man was created in the image of God, anything that disparages man is disparaging God as well.

Chilul Hashem, bringing disgrace to the Divine Name, is one of the greatest sins in the Torah. The opposite of chilul Hashem is kiddush Hashem, sanctifying the Divine Name. While this topic has several dimensions to it, there is a living kiddush Hashem which occurs when a Jew behaves in a manner that merits the respect and admiration of other people, who thereby respect the Torah of Israel.

What is chilul Hashem? One Talmudic author stated, "It is when I buy meat from the butcher and delay paying him" (Yoma 86a). To cause someone to say that a Torah scholar is anything less than scrupulous in meeting his obligations is to cause people to lose respect for the Torah.

Suppose someone offers us a business deal of questionable legality. Is the personal gain worth the possible dishonor that we bring not only upon ourselves, but on our nation? If our personal reputation is ours to handle in whatever way we please, shouldn't we handle the reputation of our nation and the God we represent with maximum care?

Jews have given so much, even their lives, for kiddush Hashem. Can we not forego a few dollars to avoid chilul Hashem?

Today I shall...

be scrupulous in all my transactions and relationships to avoid the possibility of bringing dishonor to my God and people.

With stories and insights,
Rabbi Twerski's new book Twerski on Machzor makes Rosh Hashanah prayers more meaningful. Click here to order...